The law of a country establishes legally enforceable rights, duties to respect those rights, and means of redressing violations of rights. One means of redressing such violations of rights is through a court of law. International Human Rights Instruments and National Constitutions of some countries have adopted the human right to water. This makes the right to water remedial in a court of law. In Ethiopia laws and policies have been enacted for the realization of access to clean water. However, the issue of whether Ethiopian Courts can interpret and enforce the right to water is unknown. This makes the current extent and scope of jurisdiction of Ethiopian Courts concerning water cases to be vague. The aim of this paper is the legal analysis of whether Ethiopian Courts have jurisdiction to interpret and enforce the right to water. To do this, a doctrinal methodology that employed primary and secondary sources of data has been used. For greater insight and judicial practicability of the right, the experience of some countries on the issue has also been analyzed. The paper argues that Ethiopian courts can and should interpret and apply the human rights to water as a basis for the right to life. Amongst others, in this paper, the writer recommends explicitly incorporating the human right to water into Ethiopian water laws and developing the required administrative and competent judicial organs to strengthen recognition and interpretation of the right.
| Published in | Advances (Volume 3, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21 |
| Page(s) | 117-124 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Human Right to Water, Courts, National Constitutions
| [1] | Abiy Chelkeba Worku, Human Rights Approach to water in the Ethiopian context: Legal and Policy assessment and challenges, 2017. |
| [2] | Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 1995, Federal Negarit Gazeta, Proc. No. 1, 1st Year, No. 1, Art. 90 (1). |
| [3] | Ethiopian Water Resources Management Policy (1999). |
| [4] | Definition of Jurisdiction” at http://www.en.m.wikipedihttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jurisdiction [Last accessed, July 2, 2021]. |
| [5] | Federal Courts Proclamation, 2021, Federal Negarit Gazetta, Proc. No. 1234, 27th Year, No. 26, Art. 3. |
| [6] | Amhara National Regional State Courts Establishment Revised Proclamation, 2015, Zikre Hige, Proc. No. 223, 20th Year, No. 4, Art. 14, 15, 16, and 17. |
| [7] | Tigest Asseffa, Judicial Review of Administrative Actions: A Comparative Analysis, LLM thesis, Addis Ababa University, 2010 [unpublished]. |
| [8] | “Guide to Judicial Review Jurisdiction of Federal Courts” at https://www.chilot.me/2013/11/19/guide-to-judicial-review-jurisdiction-of-federalcourts/[Last accessed July 13, 2021]. |
| [9] | Freedom of Mass-Media and Access to Information Proclamation, 2008, Federal Negarit Gazette, Proc No. 590, 14th Year, No. 64, Art. 34 (1). |
| [10] | Ethiopia Commodity Exchange Authority Establishment Proclamation, 2007, Federal Negarit Gazeta, Proc. No. 551, 13th Year, No. 62, Art. 18 (5). |
| [11] | Veera Kaul Singh & Bharath Jairaj, Judicial Trends in Water Law, A case Study. |
| [12] | Ethiopian Water Resources Management Proclamation, 2000, Federal Negarit Gazeta, Proc. No. 197, 6th Year, No. 25, Art. 9 (1), (2) & (3). |
| [13] | WRM Proclamation No. 197/2000, Art. 9 (2), 9 (4), and WRM Regulation, 2005, Federal Negarit Gazeta, Reg. No. 115, 11th Year, No. 27, Art. 36. |
| [14] | ANRS Proclamation No. 223/2015, Art. 17 (2). |
| [15] | Jootaek Lea & Maraya Best, the Human Right to Water: A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography, Northern University School of law, 2017. |
| [16] | Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 15: The right to water (E/C. 12/2002/11. |
| [17] | International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), 1966, 993, U. N. T. S. |
| [18] | Catarina De Albuquerque, Realizing the Human Right to Water and Sanitation: A Handbook by the UN Special Rapporteurs, 2014, p. 8. |
| [19] | International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966, 999 U. N. T. S. 171. |
| [20] | Uruguay's Constitution, 2004, English Translation, 2012, Art. 74. |
| [21] | Carlos Santos & Alberto Villareal, Uruguay: Direct Democracy in Defence of the Right to Water, 2006, p. 1. |
| [22] | The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Art. 27 (1) (a, b, c). |
| [23] | National Water Act No. 36, Acts of Parliament, 1998, (Republic of South Africa), Art. 2 (a, b, c, d). |
| [24] | Water Act of South Africa, Art. 151 (a, b, c, d, e). |
| [25] | Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995, Art. 39 and see also part four of the Constitution. |
| [26] | Water Act, Cap, 152, Acts of Parliament, 1997, (Uganda), Art. 103 and 104. |
APA Style
Abera Gashe Tegegne. (2022). Jurisdiction of Courts on the Right to Water in Ethiopia. Advances, 3(3), 117-124. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21
ACS Style
Abera Gashe Tegegne. Jurisdiction of Courts on the Right to Water in Ethiopia. Advances. 2022, 3(3), 117-124. doi: 10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21
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Download@article{10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21,
author = {Abera Gashe Tegegne},
title = {Jurisdiction of Courts on the Right to Water in Ethiopia},
journal = {Advances},
volume = {3},
number = {3},
pages = {117-124},
doi = {10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.advances.20220303.21},
abstract = {The law of a country establishes legally enforceable rights, duties to respect those rights, and means of redressing violations of rights. One means of redressing such violations of rights is through a court of law. International Human Rights Instruments and National Constitutions of some countries have adopted the human right to water. This makes the right to water remedial in a court of law. In Ethiopia laws and policies have been enacted for the realization of access to clean water. However, the issue of whether Ethiopian Courts can interpret and enforce the right to water is unknown. This makes the current extent and scope of jurisdiction of Ethiopian Courts concerning water cases to be vague. The aim of this paper is the legal analysis of whether Ethiopian Courts have jurisdiction to interpret and enforce the right to water. To do this, a doctrinal methodology that employed primary and secondary sources of data has been used. For greater insight and judicial practicability of the right, the experience of some countries on the issue has also been analyzed. The paper argues that Ethiopian courts can and should interpret and apply the human rights to water as a basis for the right to life. Amongst others, in this paper, the writer recommends explicitly incorporating the human right to water into Ethiopian water laws and developing the required administrative and competent judicial organs to strengthen recognition and interpretation of the right.},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Jurisdiction of Courts on the Right to Water in Ethiopia AU - Abera Gashe Tegegne Y1 - 2022/08/24 PY - 2022 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21 DO - 10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21 T2 - Advances JF - Advances JO - Advances SP - 117 EP - 124 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2994-7200 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.advances.20220303.21 AB - The law of a country establishes legally enforceable rights, duties to respect those rights, and means of redressing violations of rights. One means of redressing such violations of rights is through a court of law. International Human Rights Instruments and National Constitutions of some countries have adopted the human right to water. This makes the right to water remedial in a court of law. In Ethiopia laws and policies have been enacted for the realization of access to clean water. However, the issue of whether Ethiopian Courts can interpret and enforce the right to water is unknown. This makes the current extent and scope of jurisdiction of Ethiopian Courts concerning water cases to be vague. The aim of this paper is the legal analysis of whether Ethiopian Courts have jurisdiction to interpret and enforce the right to water. To do this, a doctrinal methodology that employed primary and secondary sources of data has been used. For greater insight and judicial practicability of the right, the experience of some countries on the issue has also been analyzed. The paper argues that Ethiopian courts can and should interpret and apply the human rights to water as a basis for the right to life. Amongst others, in this paper, the writer recommends explicitly incorporating the human right to water into Ethiopian water laws and developing the required administrative and competent judicial organs to strengthen recognition and interpretation of the right. VL - 3 IS - 3 ER -
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